 The procession marked the first day of a two-day funeral ceremony.Reportedly, Russian experts were brought to the mausoleum to embalm Kim Jong-il's body for permanent display in the same manner of his father and other former Communist leaders such as Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, and Joseph Stalin (until 1961 when he was buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis).On 12 January 2012, the North Korean government confirmed that Kim Jong-il's preserved remains would be put on permanent display in the palace and announced plans to erect a new Kim Jong-il statue and construct "towers to his immortality".